Chicken Costoletta

Because no food blog of mine would be complete without this recipe! I was drooling over this earlier, wishing it was cool enough to make this, and thought I should add it while I was thinking about it. It is worth the effort, trust me!

Crispy Chicken Costolleta

(Copycat of the Cheesecake Factory's Crispy Chicken Costolleta)

Serves 4

Crispy Chicken
4 chicken breasts, cut horizontally, and pounded to about 1/4 inch thick, or use chicken cutlets.
Lemon zest of 2 lemons
1 1/2 cups plain bread crumbs
2 Tablespoons Freshly grated Parmesan (optional)
2 eggs, whisked with 2 T water
3 Tablespoons flour
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp kosher salt

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Zest two lemons. Bake zest for about 5 minutes until dry. On one paper plate combine flour, pepper and salt. On another paper plate combine eggs and water, whisk until combined. On another paper plate combine dry lemon zest, bread crumbs and cheese. Place pounded chicken in the flour, coating well, followed by the egg mixture and the bread crumbs. Heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil and 1 Tablespoon butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Place chicken in pan and cook on each side about 5 minutes until middle is no longer pink. You will need to work in batches, adding more oil and butter as needed. Keep chicken warm in oven at 250 degrees.

Lemon Sauce

2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup plus 1 T fresh lemon juice
1/8 cup chicken stock
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Over medium heat in a fairly large saucepan heat canola oil. Add minced garlic and saute about 3 minutes. Add whipping cream and boil until reduced by one-third. Add Dijon, lemon juice, chicken stock and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter until melted.

Serve chicken with lemon sauce and mashed garlic potatoes.

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I like the sauce better with the mustard decreased to 1/2 t. and only 1/8 c. lemon juice. We serve it with asparagus and mashed potatoes covered in the lemon sauce. Darn it, I'm drooling again!

Anyway you make it, it's absolutely wonderful, and a fine tribute to the Cheesecake Factory's version. Thank you Jules for creating and posting this wonderful dish on the internet!

If you have time, browse around Jules' blog, as she has some other yummy recipes posted there. The peach-blackberry cobbler sounds good right now.